The Planet Uranus

– “For You To Enjoy And Share With Friends” –

A great introduction to the Planet Uranus, the third largest planet in the Solar System and the first to be discovered by a telescope.  The only spacecraft to have visited Uranus is Voyager 2 which discovered ten new moons. This brings the total of known moons to 27. Unlike moons of most other planets which are named after mythological characters, Uranus’s moons are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Uranus is unique amongst the Planets in that its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its revolution about the Sun. It too has a ring system and is classified as an ‘ice giant’ as its atmosphere contains more ice substances like water, methane and ammonia than either Saturn or Jupiter.